THE ENCOURAGER - PAC newsletter

    February 2012                         Pine Acres Church

                                                   1321 Lark Street

Be Prepared. That's the Boy Scouts motto. "Be prepared for what?" someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. "Why, for any old thing." said Baden-Powell. The training you receive in your troop will help you live up to the Scout motto. When someone has an accident, you are prepared because of your first aid instruction. Because of lifesaving practice, you might be able to save a non-swimmer who has fallen into deep water.

But Baden-Powell wasn't thinking just of being ready for emergencies. His idea was that all Scouts should prepare themselves to become productive citizens and to give happiness to other people. He wanted each Scout to be ready in mind and body for any struggles, and to meet with a strong heart whatever challenges might lie ahead. Be prepared for life - to live happily and without regret, knowing that you have done your best. That's what the Scout motto means.

I think we should apply this motto to the Christian life. I believe many Christians are destroyed or nearly destroyed because they are not prepared. When difficulties hit, they are paralyzed with fear or disappointment. How exactly can a Christian prepare for difficulties ahead? Here are three points based on Scripture.

 

Recognize that we will go through difficulties. Don’t let it surprise you. The first step to dealing with a challenge is to acknowledge that it’s there. People who teach that Christians will never suffer are dangerous false teachers because they are not adequately preparing people. In reality, they are only preparing people to fail when the trials come. Look at James and John. They both indicate that Christians will indeed endure trials and trouble.

 

 

 

Not only do we need to recognize that you will go through trials but also that God will grow you through these difficulties. I know that when I get frustrated it is often because my plans have been taken off course. When an unexpected bill appears (medical, car repair, broken toilet) it ruins what I had planned. However, God can use those “deductions” to build into my life. I can say, “God was able to teach me patience for $299.” (I hope He can teach me more lessons for less, but I’m not in charge).

 

 

If we know that by facing difficulty, God will grow us, then we know our pain is not wasted. But John Piper takes this even a step further. In his article, Don’t Waste Your Cancer Piper says, “it will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils, Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: ‘They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him’ Job 42:11. If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.”

 

Furthermore, recognize that not only will you grow as you go through trials, but you will also glow. You will be a light that glorifies God when you endure. In the end, not only do you benefit when you grow, but others benefit from your “glow.”

 

Others get to see God in us when we handle difficulty in a godly fashion. Our first priority is to glorify God. We can turn all of our life situations - the good, the bad and the ugly - into an opportunity to serve Him.

Imagine all that Paul went through. 2 Corinthians tells us that he suffered in prison, whipped more times than he could count, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed, cold, lonely and sleepless just to name a few of his difficulties. Paul knew that he would GO through difficulties, he knew he would GROW through his difficulties and he knew that he could GLOW in his difficulties.

This is the idea behind the memorial stones in Joshua 4. God wants us to go through the trials and challenges, the crossings, the next step.

 

Pastor Brian

While traveling down the road today I began thinking about a small word all of us use. It’s in our everyday language. It’s used in all our excuses. As matter of fact, it is used to keep us from doing some really good things. What is it?

 

BUSY! Don’t you agree it’s a word that we use daily? I know I do. 

 

As it came to mind I began thinking of an acronym for it. Try this one on and see what you think.    Burdened Under Satan’s Yoke.

When we feel busy who wins? 

Does our family win? Does our church win? Does God win?

When we allow ourselves to become so busy everyone suffers – even ourselves.

 

I hear things like this ALL the time…

 

The next time you are tempted to use the words “I am too busy…” – THINK!

 

Think about “who wins”! I hope I can learn from this simple lesson God has taught me today. Maybe you can be challenged. If so, give God the glory because He says in Matthew 11:30 “My yoke is easy and My burden is light”!

 

I am excited about what God is doing at PAC! Come join in on THEE experience!

 

Pastor Tony

As I look at my calendar for the upcoming year, I can’t help but think about how we so easily let it get so full. Between sports and school and family and fun and church, it seems that every week we have six nights taken by activities. Some of these are definitely beneficial while others are just fun to be a part of. And with this being said and done, I couldn’t help but to take a look at my calendar to see what all is going on over the next semester and into the summer. I thought it would be good to let everyone know what to look forward to, because a few of the things cost money and it might beneficial to plan ahead.

ë Youth Sunday, May 27. Where the students get to lead the church in worship – yes this is Memorial weekend, but we adjusted our date to fit the 40-Days in the Word we will be doing starting at Easter and ending the beginning of May.

ë Sr Hi Camp – (grades 9-12) Snow Mountain Ranch, Granby, CO – June 3-7. Cost $225.

ë Jr Camp – (grades 4-6) Tabor College, Hillsboro, KS – June 19-23. Cost $155.

ë Jr Hi Camp – (grades 7-8) New Life Ranch, Colcord, OK – June 30 – July 4, Cost $190.

 

College Quest has made several moves this past year. We went from Thursday nights to Wednesday nights and from the home of Mark & Brenda Lumpkin (who faithfully served us for 6 years) to the home of Mike & Kelly Dean. 

We are gearing up for the Pact Mission trip to Costa Rica. Our final team is established at 15: (three adults) Hal Penner, Dale Slagell, Sharon Mahan, (three college students) Jordan Mahan, David Schoenhals, Allyson Walton, (nine high school students) Aaron Slagell, Bryan Jenkins, Alexis Rickel, Renae Koehn, Jordan Fite, Reagan Harris, Reagan Nikkel, Chandra Yoder and Josh Jantzen.

The trip is going to cost about $1500 per person. Most of which goes to airfare, as well each person has to get a passport, some money goes to food, and some to cover expenses for our work project while we are there. Each person going is required to pay $150 out of their own pocket and then assist in fundraising to help raise the remainder. 

We would appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this great adventure. Not everyone can go to a foreign land to serve God, but those who cannot are no less important. You can partner with us to serve our Lord in Costa Rica by helping us financially and through prayer.   There are many unknowns to this trip still to this date, but we feel God is calling us to go and we want to be faithful to Him.

Pray that:

·         we will raise the needed funds to make this trip possible,

·         our travel will go smoothly (15 people, some of which are minors, traveling about 2000 miles one way),

·         the bus ride from the airport to the town where we will be serving (around an hour),

·         the language barrier (only two of the 15 speak Spanish),

·         we will be able to accomplish something for the community by way of our work project,

·         we will make connections and build relationships with people there,

·         people will come to know Christ for the first time,

·         we will not get sick or have any injuries.

 

 

 

We are starting up our curriculum for Kids Own Worship. I am so excited to see what is in store for our kids! I have parents that tell me that their kids still remember the Memory Verse from our last series (and can do it in the Australian accent.) That is so exciting to see our children hiding God’s word in their hearts! We will start by focusing on being Devoted to Prayer. I hope that you will begin to discuss the importance of prayer at home while we are studying about it. The first Bible story we studied is about the Persistent Widow. We talked about how much more could we get accomplished when we are persistent in prayer to God. This was a great reminder to me to not give up on prayer. I love our memory verse - 1 John 5:14-15. The kids will be learning this verse for a little over a month. I pray that you will hide this verse in your hearts and believe it wholeheartedly.

I am so thankful for your prayers and support for our children. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me!

-Mrs. Brittany Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ A Sunday School teachers convention was held in Clinton.

~ Adriel ladies hosted a Valentine’s banquet at the Mark Restaurant. The cost was $6 per person.

~ Congratulations went to Rick and Vonnie Schmidt on the birth of Brennan Reid

~ Held our first AWANA Grand Prix.

~ Attendance - 143

~The Adriel ladies held a Valentine’s banquet here at church

~The men had a breakfast at the Mark

~Attendance – 151

~Weatherford was out of power for a week. Worship was held in Sunday in the Hearthside Room with the fireplace for heat and candles for light

~ ICK-THOOS held a Mock Super Bowl Party the Sunday after the Super Bowl because of the power outage.

~  Attendance – 236

February Attendance – 258

Sunday School – 176

Worship – 239

Wednesday – 150

Sunday School – 176

Worship – 208

Wednesday - 153

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Food Pantry is a ministry in which our church helps, along with other churches in Weatherford. They ask each church in town to provide something each month for

the pantry. During the month of FEBRUARY our church is asked to provide canned fruit.

be picked up and delivered to the Pantry. 

 

 

The Encourager                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Page 8

HAVING FUN WITH FOOTBALL

 

For the last several years now, Pastor Hal has been putting together contests to see who has the greatest sports guessing power at Pine Acres Church. He puts together brackets for the NCAA men’s Basketball tournament where people can pick the winners of the games and completely fill in the bracket before the tournament begins, as well as picking the winners of the 36 different NCAA Football Bowl Games.  

This years winners were: second place, Matt Jett and first place, Geneva Penner. After the contest was over, Matt commented: “It was very humbling to be beaten by a girl in a sports contest, but at least I wasn’t beaten as bad as Carlin Dyck – that guy should be ashamed of himself.” 

Geneva posted a massive 27 wins out of 36 games. She ended up with an accuracy rate of 98.8% with Matt weighing in at 25 games and 92.6%. On the natinal level, Geneva ranked in the top 3000 out of over a half a million who competed. Geneva was also humble, in that she said: “My favorite part of winning was making sure my husband knew each day how many points I was beating him by. I really didn’t care about beating all the 19 guys and 2 ladies from our church, not to mention the thousands of men from all over the sports world.”

Others who competed in this years contest were: Luke Jett (who as a 9 year old placed third, also embarassing to the rest of those who competed), Greg Friesen, Corey Creider, Nancy Fast, Kyle Basinger, Bubba Fite, Matt Fast, Chad Eldred, Hal Penner, Spencer Williams, Heath Epley, Brian Harris, Dave Harms, Mike Brown, Brandon Terrell, Angela Dyck, Tony Cannon, Tim Franz, Carlin Dyck and Dusty Harms.

“It’s always fun to compete in these types of contests, but it was a major blow to my ego going from first place last year to tying for 18^th this year. Now I know how Auburn feels.” noted Tim Franz.

Another female who placed high in the final standings was Nancy Fast who was elated when she said: “I really enjoy competing in just about anything. My trick to winning is to pick the team with the prettiest helmet. That seems to work for me.” After hearing Nancy say this, Brandon Terrel was overheard telling Mike Brown: “I am so going with the pretty helmet thing next year!”

This year, the church only provided one trophy, and it was for the second place winner. But for the first place winner, they were given an all-expense paid cruise for them and their spouse!

If you are interested in participating in the next contest, be on the look out for March Madness (the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament), coming soon. It will be online at espn.go – you will need to create an account with them (free) so you can participate in the contest. This will be around the end of February first of March. For more information, contact Pastor Hal.